Coup in India? Nation laughs it off

People on Wednesday woke up to a startling report by Indian Express on Army units movement towards Delhi without informing government on January 16. Hindustan Times.com conducted a poll asking common man if they think that a coup is possible in India.

People on Wednesday woke up to a startling report by Indian Express on Army units movement towards Delhi without informing government on January 16.

Report said that on January 16 (the day Army Chief General V K Singh approached the Supreme Court on his date of birth issue), central intelligence agencies reported an unexpected (and non-notified) movement by a key military unit, from the mechanised infantry based in Hisar (Haryana) as a part of the 33rd Armoured Division (which is a part of 1 Corps, a strike formation based in Mathura and commanded by Lt Gen. A K Singh) in the direction of the capital, 150 km away.

Hindustan Times.com conducted a poll asking common man if they think that a coup is possible in India.

An overwhelming 65% did not think that a situation like this can arise in India. 32% believed that army can stage coup in the country while 3% said they can't say whether a coup is possible or not.

The report created a flutter within government, opposition, common people across the nation with most of them dismissing the report and claiming it baseless.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dubbed the Indian Express report about army troops being moved to Delhi as alarmist and said it should not be taken at face value while defence minister said he did not doubt the patriotism of the armed forces and that the reported movement of two army units towards Delhi in January was "nothing unusual".

General public's view could be gauged through Twitter with most of the twitteratis ridiculing the report and laughing it off through funny tweets.

Twitter was full of tweets about the reports and #coup, Shekhar Gupta and The Indian Express were trending in India throughout the day.

Here are few of the tweets ridiculing the report in a style that will make you laugh and appreciate the humour.